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Varun Industries, which has diverse interest in steel ware, mining and oil and natural gas, has announced that its overseas subsidiary has discovered heavy mineral sand (HMS) at its mining blocks covering an area of 62.5 sq. km. at Belay and Anosy in Madagascar, Africa.
HMS is an important source of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, rare earth elements, the industrial minerals diamond, sapphire, garnet, and occasionally precious metals or gemstones.
Top resources
The total heavy mineral resources in the blocks allotted to the company is estimated at about 266.8 million tonnes (mt), which includes 221 mt of ilmenite, 1.84 mt of rutile, 1.84 mt of leucoxene, 9.2 mt of monazite, 18.4 mt zircon, 9.2 mt of garnet, 2.76 mt sillimanite and 9.2 mt of spinel, said the company in a press release on Tuesday.
These elements are widely used in a range of hardware including precision-guided weapons, lasers, radar, hybrid car, magnets for electric vehicle motors wind turbines, compact fluorescent light bulbs, flat panel display, iPads and a number of equipments in medical diagnostics, treatment and pharmaceuticals, paints, pigments, ceramics and abrasives etc.
Mr A.P. Dhurandhar, Vice-President (Exploration), Varun Industries, said “We expect the overall rare earth oxide (REO) demand to increase by 12.5 per cent by 2015. Besides, the acute shortage of supplies may prolong as the new mine developments will take at least five to ten years.”
Rare earths
About 97 per cent of the world's rare earth metal is supplied by China while India contributes close to two per cent. China recently restricted exports of rare earth by reducing permits for production from 66,000 tonnes in 2004 to 30,000 tonnes in 2010.
Moreover, China had closed down some of the plants that were processing these ores, besides declaring rare earth ores as strategic minerals. This has lead to over seven fold increase in rare earth ores since January 2009.
Varun Group owns 1,111 blocks (6,950 sq. km) for uranium mining (thorium and gold as by-product) and onshore and offshore blocks covering an area of 6,884 sq. km. and 13,299 sq. km.
On Tuesday, shares of Varun Industries were up 1.17 per cent to Rs 225.
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